9th coldest February in 137 years; 4th snowiest since 1929
The cold, snowy weather of February 2007 has extinguished a once formidable 6.4° winter temperature surplus and done so with remarkable speed. What was once one of the 9 warmest winters on record in Chicago only 6 weeks ago will go down in the books with a meager 0.1°surplus as the season closes Wednesday night—a statistical “wash.”
Not only has February been cold, it’s been snowy. The weekend’s 3.0" at Midway and 4.5" at O’Hare brings each observation site’s February snowfall to 21.1" and 20.1" respectively—nearly three times the monthly norm. Midway’s tally ranks 4th heaviest of all Februarys since 1929.
The weekend storm spared Chicago the blow it delivered in terms of snow to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Had the 1.13” of moisture delivered by the weekend system been snow here, more than a foot would have fallen. North and west suburbs recorded the largest snow totals —including 11.4" at Antioch.
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist